Ink & Needles

“Ink & Needles” is a casual, dreamy, intimate, and away from stereotypes short film/micro-documentary about the daily life of the renowned tattoo artist Zhuo Dan Ting. It is also the first chapter of a series of microfilms inspired by the city of Shanghai.

As a filmmaker, I really wanted to make this short film for some time already but many circumstances had to occur to make it possible. Finally, I got the chance of making it after getting a tattoo myself and meeting Dylan Byrne and Zhuo Dan Ting, managers of Shanghai Tattoo. They were kind enough to let me invade their workplace and disturb their clients with my gear and presence to make this film.

This film was also the chance I had to experiment with my old and beloved Canon 5D mk ii and the RAW format provided by the latest MagicLantern Firmware and the Premiere-Davinci workflow. The result is mindblowing considering this is a 5-year-old camera that originally only delivered H264 compressed footage.